A World Without Her
by flamefield
Summary: Wybie learns that Coraline is still alive, and that she and his grandma were telling the truth all along. Can he save her? Can he fight something he truly knows nothing about to get Coraline back? 5-part series
1. Part One

She was gone.

Less than two weeks after the police had gone through all the rooms, the yard, and every area surrounding the Pink Palace, Wybie could feel Coraline's presnence fading quickly from his life. In the five days that he had known her, she was by far the most interesting person he had ever met. Not only because of her name, but because of...her. She was bossy, she was frustrating, she punched him at every opportunity, she loved gardening, she wanted to have an adventure...

He dreams of her every night.

"_Crazy, you're crazy!"_ He screamed at her, slamming the door. He heard a thunk of an item hitting the door as he ran away as fast as he could. He saw Coraline's face fading from being angry to crying. Behind her stood a sinister shadow, with thin mechanical arms like a spider. Those creepy-as-hell arms reached out and embraced Coraline, before pulling her into the darkness.

Wybie always woke from those dreams sweating and panting. Maybe Coraline was correct about the whole 'Other Mother' thing she was ranting about...

A familiar black cat meowed at him from the end of his bed, it's blue eyes staring at him sleepily.

"Sorry, I woke you, didn't I?" Wybie yawned and scratched his head. "Want some milk? I might get some."

The cat blinked again.

"Alright." Wybie yawned again and shuffled out from under his slug-printed covers. He opened the door quietly, making sure that he wouldn't wake up his grandma. The last time he did...he swore her lecture could've been World War Three easily. He went down the stairs, the cat following behind him.

"Grandma?" Wybie cried out in astonishment. His grandma was sitting at their little kitchen table, looking at a photo and crying. "Grandma, are you alright?"

His aging grandma looked at him through her enormous glasses. "Look." She sniffed, pointing at the photo. Wybie walked over to her. "I know, Grandma. That's the photo of you and your sister." He stated. "I just came to get some milk."

"No, but she's gone." Grandma wailed loudly. "That...monster took her!"

Wybie sighed and looked at the cat. "Looks like no milk tonight." He then put his hands under her frail arms. "Let's go back to bed, Grandma." He said.

His grandma slapped his hands away. He pulled back, surprised. "Wyborne, she's gone. And Coraline didn't help get her eyes back as well..."

Wybie's eyes widened. "What?"

"Coraline is still alive...but she can't go back. Someone needs to go save her and my sister and all the other children." His grandma stared at him intensely. "I've kept you away from that place on purpose your entire life...but Coraline is important to you."

"I-I" Wybie stuttered.

"I see the signs, boy. You have a special connection with her. Sp, I am sending you to where Coraline is to search for her. This is my final wish should I die soon. But, there is an evil dwelling there that is of another world by itself...return with Coraline and save the souls of the children she has stolen..."

Wybie stared at the bent-over woman at the table. "Grandma, it's 2:30 in the morning. This is all very deep but-"

"Boy, you know I don't repeat myself. The cat will help you." She pointed towards the cat, who had been sitting on the floor listening this whole time.

"So where the little door is in the Pink Palace...that's where Coraline is?" Wybie asked.

"Yup. Go know. Take everything you can but not too much so that you continue to stay mobile. Don't be loud, think cleverly, and do not take anything SHE offers you. That was my mistake when I went to save my sister." Grandma started to cry again. "Go now, before Coraline is no longer alive..."

Wybie stood for a second before running upstairs to his bedroom, grabbing anything he could think to be useful into his backpack. The cat meowed from where the door was. "Anything I should definitely bring?" He asked it, tossing a hammer into the bag. "You are supposed to help me, after all."

The cat nodded once before jumping onto his desk. It grabbed his boomerang in its mouth and dragged it over to the bag. Wybie put it in the bag without a second thought. "Alright." He said after a few more minutes, putting on the backpack. "Let's do this." He pulled on his coat and gloves and ran downstairs and out the door, the cat at his heels.

He ran until he reached the Pink Palace. The police crime scene tape was still on the door, but Wybie ignored it and pushed open the creaky door. A dark, abandoned house greeted him with a smell that smelled like moss and cheese. Wybie held his breath as he stepped into the darkness, flicking on his flashlight. He navigated his way through the long hallway till he came to the living room. Instantly Wybie felt as if someone was watching him, but he couldn't find where. He quickly located the little door Coraline had showed him, a button-shaped key was still lodged in the lock.

Wybie walked over and knelt down to the indent, turning the key slowly. When he opened the door his mouth dropped open. A tie-dyed tunnel lay before him, leading towards another small door. Coraline wasn't lying. There was really another world behind the little door. And according to Grandma, something dreadfully evil...

Wybie looked at the cat. "Here we go...I guess." He started to crawl on his hands and knees toward the other door.

"I'm coming, Coraline." He muttered, eyes furrowed. "I'll find you, no matter what. Even if I have to fight scary things in my pajamas."


	2. Part Two

Wybie crawled slowly through the tie-dye tunnel. Soft pulses of light bounced off around the edges as he continued on his rescue mission. About halfway through he heard a sneeze behind him. He whipped his head around to see the cat wiping its nose with its paw.

"Shoo, go back cat." Wybie said, annoyed.

"I'll not be 'shooed' back to the normal world, mind you." The cat spoke. Wybie screeched and stumbled back into the pillow-like floor.

"You...you can talk?" Wybie stuttered, his eyes wide open. Well what did he expect? He's crawling through a imaginative tunnel to save a girl he barely knows from some monster.

The cat stared back at the boy, its large blue eyes unblinking. "Well, of course I can in this part. You're technically in _her _world now."

"I'm sorry, _her?_" Wybie started crawling through the tunnel again.

"Yes, _her_. She created this world for Coraline. She has created many, many worlds for all the children she _loves_." The cat followed behind him. "I will be by your side the entire time for the..._entertainment._ I owe you for all the delicious meals, anyhow."

Wybie looked at the cat. "I still can't believe that you can talk! It's so cool."

The animal rolled its eyes. "Children."

The two of them crawled until they reached the other door. Wybie held his breath as slowly he pushed the small door open, pulling out his hammer from his bag. He poked his head through, his hammer raised high, only to be greeted with an empty room exactly like the one he had just left, only it was much brighter.

"What? We just were in here." Wybie said, pushing the rest of his body through and standing up.

"This is her world, remember? It is designed to confuse you, make you think that this world is where reality is, when it isn't." The cat stated, stretching out beside the boy.

"Well Coraline is here, right?" Wybie said nervously, glancing around the identical room.

The cat bowed its head. "Sure. You just need to find her. The _real_ her. _She_ likes to play games, tricks if you will."

Wybie raised his hammer. "I will." He started walking to where the kitchen was. The hallway was just as bright as the room they had exited. Portraits lined the walls, all of them of Coraline with different facial expressions.

"Okay, this is creepy." Wybie said, glancing at one of Coraline wearing a terrified expression. "Where would she be anyhow?"

The cat sniffed the air as they entered the kitchen. "If I know that girl, she would be outside in the garden."

Wybie glanced at the door.

"Be my guest if you want to go out there. _She_ is there as well."

"You...you're not coming?" Wybie stammered.

"I smell a feast." The cat licked its lips and pounced off into the other room. Wybie watched it go with a remorseful look on his face. "Okay, you can do this. How scary can a monster be?" He gulped as he went out the kitchen door and into the night.

In the distance Wybie could see a lot of lights and green-looking things. Assuming that was the garden, he set off in that direction. Soon, he could pick out the details of pumpkins, the smell of strawberries, and the sound of a girl laughing.

"_Coraline..." _He whispered. Raising his hammer to chest-level, he sneaked up to see a scene that almost shocked him. Coraline was there, but so was her mother and her father and someone else...they were all facing the blue-haired girl, who was performing some sort of dance.

Coraline finished with a curtsey and the three audience members immediatly stood up and clapped. Wybie stood dumbfounded. Coraline stood up only to meet Wybie's eyes. She gasped. "WYBIE?!" She screeched.

The three audience members turned and Wybie screamed. They all had buttons for eyes, even the third person, who looked EXACTLY like him. "WHAT THE HELL?!" He stumbled back.

The thing that looked like Coraline's mother smiled and started towards him. "Dear, what is he doing here?" She said between clenched teeth.

"I have no idea...Mother." Coraline said, staring at Wybie. "He isn't supposed to be here." She looked scared.

"I came here to find Coraline...miss..." Wybie said, stepping back. "I'm here to take her back to the real world."

Coraline's mother stopped walking towards him. "Oh, you are now? Well, I'm sorry to say but Coraline has agreed to stay here forever with her _better_ family now, hasn't she?"

The girl put on a smile. "That's right. I have. Please leave Wybie. I am happy here."

The boy looked at her. Her mouth said one thing, but her eyes were pleading with him to take her away. Wybie knew that look. He saw it in the almost-dead eyes of every roadkill animal he had found on the side of the road.

"No. I will not." Wybie said bravely, clutching the hammer. "What do I have to do to convince you to return to your real home, Coraline?"

Coraline looked at her...mother. "Mother, he wants to know-"

"I HEARD you, Coraline." She huffed, putting a skinny hand to her forehead. "I'm thinking." Her bony fingers rapped impatiently against her skull.

_ "She likes to play games, tricks if you will."_

"How about a game, Mrs. Jones? For her to come with me." Wybie said slyly.

Her fingers stopped, but she didn't move. "No...not a game for my darling."

Wybie thought for a moment. "How about a test of finding things then, for your daughter's return...AND for the returns of the souls you have trapped here."

The woman straightened up almost instantly. Her button eyes glinted. "You drive a hard bargain, but I love tests almost as much as I love games." She clapped her hands together. "Very well then. But _I_ get to choose your items." She held out one of her hands.

Wybie was about to take it when Coraline screeched "YOU NEED TO GIVE HIM A HINT FIRST MOTHER!" Wybie took his hand back. The other...him and her father walked up next to her mother, one on each side. She sighed.

"Very well. The first soul is in a place where light does not touch, the second is in your reflection of tastes, and the final soul is a piece of a pillow that has broken from the nest. Find them all and you shall be able to go home."

"I want Coraline to come with me." Wybie said, staring directly into the girl's brown eyes. She blushed.

The 'mother' sighed. "Oh, very well. You have a deal." She reached out her hand again.

"Great." Wybie took her hand and shook it hard.


	3. Part Three

Coraline stepped down from the makeshift stage as the three...beings walked away and entered the house. She ran up to Wybie and embraced him, crying hysterically. He dropped the hammer.

"I'm...so...glad...you...came...back...for...me... " She wailed into his coat. "She...was...going...to...eat...me..."

Wybie awkwardly hugged her back, his coat enveloping her small body.

"But we'll never get out of here. I tried once...and I failed...and as my punishment she ate them..." She gripped his coat tighter as she wailed "SHE ATE MY PARENTS!"

Wybie held her for a while as she wept in despair. God, how he missed her...

Finally, she looked up at him, her red eyes glistening in the light of the moon. "You shouldn't be here, Wybie. How did you even know where I was?"

"Grandma told me." Wybie un-wrapped his arms and picked up the rusty hammer. "I guess she's not as crazy as I thought she was..." He gestured to the garden and the house. "And you're not crazy either."

She smiled painfully. "No. I'm not. And now you have to 'ace the test' or you'll be stuck here too. With her. And me."

Wybie looked at the blue-haired girl. "Speaking of which, WHAT THE HELL WERE THOSE THINGS?!" He flailed his arms about.

Coraline cringed. "The Other Mother. The Other Father. And...you. I don't know what they are, really. All I know is that they're not human...they're definitely not human."

Wybie stared at her. "Coraline, what have you gotten yourself into?"

"I don't know...but we have to think fast." The girl pointed a shaking finger to the moon. Wybie looked up and saw that a shadow was starting to obscure the white sky-disk. "She has started your time."

Wybie gripped the hammer. "Okay, uh...what was the first clue again?"

Coraline glared at the boy who had come to rescue her, annoyed at his idiotness-ness. "The first soul is in a place where light does not touch."

"Okay, so...what's a place where light does not touch?"

The two of them were silent as they thought. Finally, Coraline said "There is no light in the boiler room. We could start there."

"We have to go back into the house?" Wybie coughed.

"I'm afraid so." Coraline shivered in her dress. Wybie took off his jacket and hanged it on her shoulders. "Thanks." She said with a smile.

"Here." She took something from her dress pocket and handed it to Wybie. It was a triangular stone with a hole in the middle. "This helped me find their souls last time. I hid the real one from the Other Mother so she wouldn't destroy it."

Wybie nodded and pocketed the stone. "Let's go, then." The two of them set off towards the Pink Palace, determined to find the first soul.

The door opened with a small swish as the two children stepped inside. Coraline gripped Wybie's arm as they cautiously stepped inside the eerily creepy house. "Uh, where's the boiler room?" Wybie asked. Coraline slapped his arm and put a finger to her lips, the universal sign of being quiet.

Coraline pointed to a small door at the end of the hall. "It's there." She whispered. They walked quietly down the hall, passing the portraits whose eyes seemed to follow them. Wybie clenched the hammer as he reached out and turned the doorknob.

"Careful!" Coraline whispered the door swung open with a loud creak.

The children stepped forward, looking into the darkness. They were so preoccupied that they didn't realize that the Coraline's in the portraits had creeped out of their frames and were now advancing on them until they had grabbed the boy and the girl by their hair.

"AHHH! WYBIE!" Coraline screamed as the painted Coraline's started to drag her away from the boiler room, their emotions plastered in a horrible way on their faces. Wybie grunted as the Coraline copies threw him to the floor and began to search his pockets.

"Get off of me!" Wybie yelled as he threw the girls across the room in anger and fear.

As the real Coraline screamed, Wybie, thinking quickly, took his hammer and started to bash the copies into their faces, sand flying out where blood should have been. Coraline was dragged halfway up the stairs before Wybie leapt up to where she was, proceeding to 'kill' the Other Mother's creations.

Wybie was panting as he stood above the real Coraline, his hammer raised. Coraline's face changed into one of anxiousness as she slowly stood up and touched the hammer, bringing it down. Wybie was panting, his brown eyes wide. Coraline hugged him. "It's over." She said. "Do you still have the stone?"

Wybie, emotionless, put his hand in his pocket, finding that the small object was still there. "Yeah..." He said, surveying his 'work'.

"Give it to me." Wybie handed the triangle to Coraline, who walked down the stairs and went to where the boiler room was. She put it up to her eye, before gasping and reaching out. "Coraline, be careful!" Wybie snapped out of it, leaping over the dead Coraline-copies to her side.

"It's the lightbulb." Coraline said, as she put her hand into the dark room and unscrewed the object. She brought her hand back the small lightbulb.

"Don't lose it, it's our way home." Wybie stuttered. Coraline nodded as she put it in Wybie's coat. "I know." She muttered. "Losing one of the items...the souls... the last time was my mistake."

Wybie stared sympathetically at the worn-out girl. "It won't be again. Let's go find the other two things."

From a place the two children could not see, a hideous creature wailed in despair. Her creations had failed...but soon she smiled. Next time they won't survive to see the next object.


End file.
